Configuring Audio Outputs

Stage 1: Choosing an Audio Interface for Output

An audio interface provides hardware outputs for connecting to speakers or external devices such as video decks. For the purposes of this section, you can consider an audio interface to be either the built-in audio connectors on your computer or an external third-party device. For more information about audio interfaces, see Connecting Professional Video and Audio Equipment.

You can choose an audio interface for playing audio from the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline.

To choose an audio interface to monitor your audio or to output audio to an external device

Choose an audio interface from the Audio pop-up menu. This interface is used for playing audio from the Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline.

Default: This option uses the output device you have selected in the Output pane of the Sound pane of Mac OS X System Preferences (or in the Audio MIDI Setup utility). If you want to control the audio output of Final Cut Pro from these locations, choose this option. This is the default setting for audio output.

Built-in Audio: This is your computer’s built-in audio interface.

FireWire DV: If you connect a DV camcorder or deck to your computer, this option becomes the default setting.

Other available audio interfaces: If you have a third-party video or audio interface installed, it appears in this list.

Depending on your hardware, additional options may be available to configure your audio interface.

Click Options, then make choices for the following:

Channels: Choose the number of channels your audio interface can output. You can assign sequence tracks to these channels by creating an audio output preset. For more information, see Creating and Saving Audio Output Presets.

Bit Depth: Choose a supported bit depth for the audio. Sixteen-bit audio is compatible with most DV equipment. For high-resolution output and export, 24-bit audio is preferred.

Sample Rate (Hz): Choose a standard sample rate from the pop-up menu. For professional video applications, 48 kHz is typical, though 96 kHz is becoming more popular.

Select or deselect the following alert message options:

Do not show External A/V Device Warning when device not found on launch: Select this checkbox to turn off the alert message when selected devices cannot be found during application startup.

Do not show warning when audio outputs are greater than audio device channels: When selected, this option disables the following message: “The selected external audio device does not support N outputs. Unsupported outputs will be ignored during playback on this machine.” This message appears when you assign more audio output channels to a sequence than the audio interface currently selected in the Audio/Video Settings window can support. For more information about setting audio outputs, see Assigning More Audio Outputs Than Your Hardware Supports.

Stage 2: Choosing an Audio Output Preset

Audio outputs define the number of hardware outputs you want to use with the tracks in your sequence. Up to 24 audio outputs can be assigned, and each pair of outputs can be grouped together as a stereo pair or as two independent mono channels.

Audio outputs also affect audio channel groupings when you export audio using certain commands. For more information, see Audio Output Export Settings.

Stereo Monitoring L+R: This is the default audio output preset. This corresponds to your computer’s built-in headphone jack or stereo speaker output. However, you can also use it with an external audio interface.